The Day Everything Changed

Your oxen were plowing, with the donkeys feeding beside them, when the Sabeans raided us. They stole all the animals and killed all the farmhands. I am the only one who escaped to tell you.   Job 1:14-15

One day everything in Job’s life changed. The day was like any other—until a terrified servant broke through the door of the house with desperate news.

Job did not even have time to take this in, because while the servant was still speaking, another messenger came with the news that the sheep and other servants had been killed in what was probably something like a lightning storm: “The fire of God has fallen from heaven and burned up your sheep and all the shepherds. I am the only one who escaped to tell you” (Job 1:16).

While he was still speaking, a third messenger came with news that the Chaldeans had swept down from the hills and taken off with the camels. Then a fourth messenger arrived with the worst news of all—Job’s sons and daughters had been eating and drinking at one of their parties, when suddenly the house was hit by a mighty wind. The house collapsed on them, and they were all dead (see Job 1:17-19).

In one day, Job lost every familiar landmark of his life. His business was destroyed, his wealth was plundered, and his entire family was tragically killed. It all happened in one day. By any standards, this is a catalog of unspeakable suffering.

When God chose to speak to us about suffering, he did not merely give us a book of philosophy. When we are in deep personal pain, we don’t have a great deal of interest in theory or arguments. God speaks to us through the real-life experience of a man who suffered, and he records for us his thoughts and his struggles. As you enter Job’s struggles, God will speak into your pain. Wherever you look in human history, pain is still pain, and God is still God.

For further reading, see Mark 15